Hello all,

The photograph, above, is of my favourite iris, Iris ensata ((Japanese water iris), which I grow in pots submerged half way in water. They have flowered quite prolifically this year as is shown by this pot outside the office entry. Teamed with the electric coloured lobelia it makes quite a show.

And here it is arranged in a rather unusual container

At our last Sogetsu meeting, Lucy Papas ran a workshop on 'Relief'. She had prepared three different examples of the theme and spoke about them and how she had created them. This theme does not lend itself to demonstration. Lucy's biggest problem was in keeping to only three examples and deciding which, of all that she had prepared, to leave out. Her examples are blow:

White cardboard

Egg shells and wisteria vine

Inspired by Kandinsky

Lucy's critique of the members' work was thorough and insightful and often focused on elements of the work that we may not have thought of. It was quite instructive to listen to her comments and the suggestions that she offered.

Having done this exercise many times in my classes, I have used all sorts of materials, both modern and naturalistic in the past and I was now looking for something different. I thought I would try making my relief going to the back as well as coming forward. This meant that it could not be done on a board that would be hung on the wall, thus necessitating the construction of a free standing frame.

Different coloured cardboard and coloured wisteria vine

Nicole used dried yucca leaves and dried allium 

Vicky used polystyrene, an umbrella grass stem and dried agapanthus 

There was some very interesting work done by the members and, for more photos, please click on Sogetsu Ikebana Victoria, then go to Recent Workshops.


My student Shaneen Garbutt often comes to class with many enviable materials from her garden, none more so than her smoke bush. She, very generously, has supplied all of us with gorgeous long stems of this wonderful material. I used mine in this self made container with strelitzias and copper pipe.

My strelitzia nicolai has, also, been prolific this year. But, more importantly, she has produced some flowers low enough to be reached with a normal ladder. So I've had fun playing with these stunning flowers and learning to handle their weight. This container, because of the 'buttresses', lends itself well for supporting the very heavy flowers. Also, their short stems are quite restrictive in how they may be arranged.

And, below, I have placed it in a wall container, whose colour seems to have been made for this particular flower. I used portions of its very large leaves and a stainless steel strip to complete the arrangement.

And, when the flower petals have died, It makes an interesting modern arrangement. Here, I used a glass container, which is black on the outside and white on the inside and was given to me by my student Nicole.

On her last lesson my student, Mary, brought me a bunch of magnificent, pink peonies. This is a rare treat and I looked around in my garden to find accompanying material worthy of their beauty. Enter the dogwood (cornus Norman Haddon), which is in full flower at the moment but was only partially open at the time.

Bye for now,
Emily